Illinois Farm Families Blog

A New Orleans newspaper reported an average of 108.4 million viewers watched this year’s Super Bowl. At one time, 164.1 million viewers were watching the broadcast. You can bet most of those viewers were also watching the commercials and not skipping over them with their DVR systems. During the fourth quarter, Dodge ran a two minute commercial for their Ram line of trucks. This ad, during the largest televised event of the year, gave America’s farmers a shout out and a very impressionable one at that evidenced by ranking the most popular commercial in the polls.

The Dodge Ram commercial began with one of many shots of America’s farmland: a cow standing in a snowy pasture and Paul Harvey’s name in blank type across the screen. Then, the voice of Harvey, the late radio broadcaster, began. What continued was his “God Made a Farmer” speech from the 1978 Future Farmers of America convention.  During the two minute spot, Harvey’s speech was set to brilliant photos of America’s hardworking farmers (men, women, and children), their land, livestock, equipment, and aspects of their lives.

His speech began with an allusion to the story of Genesis: “And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God made a farmer.”  

Harvey continued to describe God’s desires for the type of person he needed to take care of the land, crops, animals, and communities. Harvey followed with “So God made a farmer,” as an answer.

Even though the speech was from 1978, I truly believe that the “farmer” Harvey describes can be found on today’s farms and in rural communities. Both sides of my husband’s family are a testament to Harvey’s speech, as well as the many Illinois farm families I have come to know over the years.

I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing the commercial air live since I was busying putting my little ones to bed, and I really wish I would have. My husband, who is a full-time farmer, caught the commercial and watched it a few times until I returned downstairs to watch it with him.

From the start, I was captivated by Harvey’s smooth tone set against the backdrop of a slideshow of awesome photographs of God’s country.  I listened to the “God Made a Farmer” recording and thought to myself, ‘Yes, he’s got it right, that’s America’s farmers, and that’s my husband and his family!’ I could clearly put family members’ faces to Harvey’s descriptions of farmers. And I wanted to call my family members, who are not farmers, and proudly shout, ‘Did you see that farmer commercial? That’s my husband!’

I’ve viewed the commercial multiple times, and every time I tear up at the end of the speech when Harvey talks about a son wanting to farm just like his father. Those are the men in my husband’s family who, generation after generation, have chosen to farm.  And one day, that son will hopefully be our son, if he chooses to farm alongside his own father and grandfather.  

The commercial ended with silence as the last pictures came on screen. Ram dedicate the aid “To the farmer in all of us” which was printed on the last photo of a Ram truck.

Thank you, Dodge, for highlighting the time, dedication, patience, strength, “guts,” and “glory” it takes to be a farmer and feed America.

And, thank you, God, for making farmers.

Kristen Strom

Brimfield, IL

Kristen is a city-gone-country girl after her marriage to her husband, Grant, who is a full-time farmer.  You can follow her stories and adventures on her blog at http://farmnoteslittledahinda.blogspot.com.

 

This past week I saw a farmer replanting a field of corn that had a poor stand due to the extended cool, wet conditions the area experienced in late April. Some farmers are starting to plant soybeans while others are finishing the corn crop. We were able to return to the fields this past Wednesday to do some tillage.

The earliest planted corn in the area is about 6 inches tall and looks in good condition. The wheat crop in the area is looking good and, judging by the changing color of the fields, farmers will have an early wheat harvest. Produce growers in the area have been promoting their strawberries for over a week. The strawberry season is about 2-3 weeks earlier than last year. 

Local grain bids are corn $6.05, soybeans $14.36, and wheat $ 5.93.

Have a good week.

 

David Hankammer

Farmer

Millstadt, IL

 

When hearing for the first time that I’m a grain farmer, people often ask what I do during the summer and winter.  I often have to stop and think about it, because the days seem to click by, every hour filled with something, even though I’m not sitting in a tractor or combine.  We never run out of things to do – taking care of the animals, maintaining their buildings, repairing and rebuilding tractors and other equipment from the previous season, marketing, purchasing seed and fertilizer, paying bills and preparing budgets, maybe even blogging – the list goes on.  We recently took a day to host Monica Eng, a writer for the Chicago Tribune, for a farm tour.  As part of the Farm Families effort, we feel it’s important to tell people our story.  Better yet, when we get the chance, we like to show people our story, especially those that can tell lots of other people about it.

 These days, however, it’s easy to explain what we’re doing – readying our grain drying and storage system and other field equipment for fall harvest.

We’ve had beautiful weather since the hot spell in July, and we’re taking this opportunity to get some major renovations as well as minor repairs done.  This year we expanded one of our grain bins to hold more, increasing from 40,000 bu to 60,000 bu.  A bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds, and fills a volume roughly the size of a five-gallon bucket.  If a field produces 200 bu/acre of corn (which won’t happen this year, unfortunately), the bin could now hold the crop from 300 acres.  Total on-farm grain storage now totals about 450,000 bu.  In addition to working on that, we’ve done some other significant work on the equipment that moves the grain around the farm – augers, dump pit, pipes, etc.

 Besides the grain system, we’ll service the combine, trucks, tractors, and tillage equipment again so when the crops are ready, so are we.  We’ll mow ditches and waterways once more to knock down weeds and tidy things up.  Any major outdoor projects will have to be done now, since during the course of harvest, which will start in 2-3 weeks and take approximately 50 days, the weather could turn nasty.  Before we know it, it will be Halloween and then Thanksgiving, and time to start making preparations for the 2012 crop!

 

Giving farm tours isn’t new for us. We have always given tours each year for school teachers so students have a better understanding of where their food comes from. In June we hosted the Northern Illinois Football team and coaches for a farm tour. Coaches got to drive a tractor and see beef cattle be ultrasounded. Just like an athlete may be ultrasounded to scan muscle tissue and diagnose an injury, we use ultrasound at our farm to evaluate the muscle and fat tissue of our beef cattle. This data helps us to sort out and market the cattle better, providing quality beef products for you.

The evening was wrapped up with, of course, lots of steak to eat. For many of the players it was their first time on a farm. I kidded with them that their interests with climbing on equipment and weighing themselves as a group on the big truck scale are the same highlights that our kindergarten student groups enjoy too. 

Some of the trivia information we gave the team was one cow hide can be made into 10 footballs. Footballs are made of four pieces of leather stitched together. Leather laces along one seam provide a grip for holding and passing the ball. The size of the Football Field at NIU Huskie Stadium is comparable to one acre of farmland. In DeKalb County, there are over 370,000 acres of farmland, or football fields.

You can watch a video of the Huskies Football experiencing our family farm.  

Lynn Martz
Maple Park, Ill.